Landowners could receive payments of $25 per acre on up to 1,000 acres if cover crops are established in their fields for the purposes of soil health, according to a preliminary Senate draft of the Build Back Better bill and corresponding budget. Non-operating landowners could receive payments of $5 per acre for encouraging tenants to seed covers on rented fields.

In case you missed them, here are the items that have garnered the most interest from other farmers in the month of May.

So, should no-till and other conservation-tillage practices have a major place in the Farm Bill? Managing editor John Dobberstein recently posed that question on the No-Till Farmer Facebook page.

The State of Maryland has committed approximately $16 million for the 2011-2012 Cover Crop Program, which provides grants to farmers who plant cover crops in the fall to conserve nutrients, reduce soil erosion and protect water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.